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Tag: AWS

Amazon Web Services (AWS) currently has 33% of the market share for cloud-based solutions – well ahead of any other cloud services provider. IBM Cloud trails behind at 8% adoption, despite entering into the market nearly half a decade ago. AWS has become the standard and leader for global cloud-based services for a number of reasons, which we will outline below. In this article, we’ll outline why you should consider a migration to AWS, what the principle differences are in AWS technology, and the challenges you might encounter during migration.

What Are the Advantages to Amazon Web Services?

AWS claims the vast majority of the cloud-based market, despite competition from major players such as Microsoft, Google, and IBM. What makes AWS the cloud services provider of choice? Having entered into the market early on and supporting many major technologies, AWS has the following benefits:

Cost. When comparing the pricing of six different scenarios, AWS came in middle-of-the-road for nearly every one — not bad for the most advanced cloud-based technology. Comparatively, IBM Cloud was the most expensive service for five out of six scenarios. In general, AWS is going to be one of the most cost-effective solutions available.

Trust. Many of the largest sites on the Internet are run through AWS, showing that the organization’s services are more than substantial for even the largest applications in the world. Reddit, Netflix, and Etsy are among some of the major platforms that are run through AWS.

Scalability. Amazon’s services originated out of its own need to support its ever-growing catalog of applications and technologies. This has created a system that is as scalable as it is reliable, as it was necessary to support Amazon’s tremendous growth as a major eCommerce marketplace. Small businesses and large enterprises can have their growth supported through AWS.

History. AWS was first launched in 2006; long before many of the other cloud-based services came into existence. Comparatively, IBM Cloud services did not enter into the market until IBM purchased SoftLayer in 2013. AWS has achieved quite a lot of traction and growth within the market space, which other companies may find it difficult to compete with.

User experience. In public comparison, users rated AWS 4.4 with a 79% willingness to recommend. IBM was rated at 3.8 with a 51% willingness to recommend. Areas in which IBM cloud fell short included enterprise integration, developer services, scaling, technical support, and ease of deployment.

Ultimately, AWS represents one of the most advanced, reliable, and scalable cloud-based environments available. Not only is it cost-effective, but it provides superior customer service and user experience.

AWS vs. IBM Cloud: The Technological Differences

Though they both provide roughly similar services on an enterprise level, the technologies that drive these services differ. Among the most important differences:

Internet of Things. Amazon provides both an IoT Platform and Greengrass, a software platform that makes it easy to run local data caching, messaging, and computation, making implementing IoT devices easier.

Storage and Computation. Amazon’s computational strength and storage are primarily run by its EC2 and S3 systems, which are the same systems that have been leveraged to support its largest applications.

Analytics. Analytics on Amazon are provided through Athena, EMR, and Kinesis, whereas IBM Cloud’s analytics are provided by their in-house Analytics Services and Cloudera Hosting.

In general, Amazon has a far larger developer toolset available than IBM Cloud. IBM Cloud’s technology is quite advanced in some ways — such as deep data analytics and artificial intelligence. However, Amazon makes it easier to use its services and resources.

Challenges and Considerations When Migrating from IBM Cloud to AWS

Cloud data migration is always complex, regardless of the platforms involved. A cloud data migration will encompass multiple steps and pre-planning efforts. A few of the core challenges include:

Managing the migration without downtime. Often, systems will need to be run simultaneously until a “switch over” can occur. A migration may also be done in planned stages, to avoid having to migrate the entirety of the system at once.

Ensuring the fidelity of the data transferred. Permissions, metadata, and access control lists may not always be able to be transferred with complete fidelity. This could lead to serious productivity and security issues. Data needs to be verified completely to ensure that this data has been preserved.

Utilizing the services that AWS provides. As AWS provides multiple applications and services that IBM Cloud does not, an organization must plan ahead to begin leveraging these utilities once their migration has been completed. Otherwise, they may not get the full advantages of the migration.

Transferring data quickly and effectively. For larger systems, there is the practical issue of moving as much data as possible quickly. In an IBM Cloud to AWS transfer, both services will need to communicate with each other to migrate over data and services.

Is a migration from IBM Cloud to Amazon Web Services right for your organization? AWS can help your organization reduce its cloud-based expenses, while also providing best-in-class technologies ranging from database storage to artificial intelligence. If you want to expand your organization’s cloud capabilities without sacrificing user experience and reliability, AWS may be the right solution.

The benefits of cloud computing today are too compelling to overlook. Increased collaboration, cost efficiency, flexibility, scalability, heightened security, and decreased capital expense, are just a few reasons why migrating to the cloud has become more of a necessity than a consideration. It used to be that companies were hesitant to move data to the cloud because of concerns about security. Today, they are more likely to move it to be more secure. Cloud security is a major priority for cloud providers, and now a convincing argument for moving to the cloud.

The question for those organizations considering migration becomes which type of cloud is the best match for your technology, business objectives, and environment?

Reports from a recent study by McAfee, show that 93% of businesses use some type of cloud service. To determine which is the ideal approach for your business, it’s best to understand the options.

Public Cloud

There are many benefits to using infrastructure and services that are publicly available. Use of the public cloud can be optimal for small to mid-size businesses as it is relatively simple to deploy. Resources can also be offered on a “pay-as-you-go” basis, making it very scalable. Because the infrastructure is shared among different users and businesses and there are very few upfront costs, organizations can significantly reduce their IT budget. Due to the broad network of servers, the public cloud also delivers significant reliability.

Top concerns of use with the public cloud are performance and security. Though most IT professionals believe that the cloud is safer than traditional IT systems, there remains some hesitancy with the public cloud. There are fewer geographical regulations on public cloud servers, meaning your server could be in a different country and under different restrictions. Additionally, surges in internet use can impact data transmissions. For this reason, some experts recommend private cloud use if performance is absolutely critical.

Private Cloud

A private cloud delivers all the advantages of the public cloud, but is dedicated to a specific organization. Because of the proprietary infrastructure, private clouds are easily customized.

Private clouds can deliver an increased level of security for businesses that are highly regulated or require complete control over applications and data. Depending on a company’s existing technology, infrastructure, and budget, the private cloud can either be implemented in-house or it can be outsourced. Though the cost to transition to a private cloud is higher than the public cloud option, in the long term there are still significant cost savings over purchasing dedicated servers or hosting your own servers.

Some of the key downsides to the use of a private cloud are the costs involved (as compared to public cloud) and due to heightened security, it can be more difficult for employees to gain access to information remotely.

Hybrid Cloud

Hybrid Cloud deployment has become attractive to many businesses due to the complexity of their existing architecture. This approach is a blend of private and public cloud use and can be an excellent choice for larger businesses that are required to keep critical data behind their firewall, but also want to leverage the flexibility and scalability of the public cloud for applications that may be less sensitive.

In reference to upcoming initiatives, 55% of the 2017 IT priorities study respondents stated hybrid cloud deployment when asked which deployment model they would use.

Many IT experts argue that advances in private cloud technology haven’t been able to keep up with public cloud platforms, and if private cloud innovation isn’t evolving at the same rate, it may not make sense for businesses to take the private cloud approach exclusively.

For example, the world’s largest public cloud provider is Amazon Web Services (AWS), and based on reports from Synergy Research Group, AWS is “vastly overpowering its competition. AWS has launched more than 1,000 new features in the last nine years and dropped prices more than 50 times since it launched. Many experts agree that it’s difficult for private cloud technology to keep up with growth like this and it doesn’t make sense for businesses to miss out on this level of advancement.

For most organizations, the benefits of cloud computing are no longer in question and the move is inevitable. Migrating your business to the cloud should be approached in a practical way that allows you to take advantage of the full array of benefits while minimizing disruption to your operations. A trusted Managed Services Provider (MSP) in the cloud space can be a tremendous advantage to ensuring a successful migration. Cloud MSPs also have the deep expertise necessary for the ongoing management and optimization of your cloud environment, allowing your team to focus on core business objectives.

We’re surrounded by data everywhere we go, and the amount is growing with each action we take. We rely on it regularly, probably a lot more than we even realize or would like to admit. From searching for nearby restaurants while traveling, to reading online product reviews prior to making a purchase, and finding the best route home based on real-time traffic patterns, data helps us make informed decisions every day.

However, all that data on its own is just data. The real value comes when you can find the right, relevant data when it’s needed. Better yet, take it a step further and find meaning in your data, and that’s where the real goldmine is.

Businesses are increasingly turning to search and analytics solutions to derive more value from their data, helping to provide the deep insights necessary to make better business decisions. Some popular use cases include:

At Rivet Logic, we realize the importance of data, and see the challenges businesses are facing in trying to make sense of their growing data pools. We’re excited to have partnered with Elastic – the company behind a suite of popular open source projects including Elasticsearch, Kibana, Beats, and Logstash – to deliver intelligent search and analytics solutions to help our customers get the most value out of their data, allowing them to make actionable improvements to websites for enhanced customer experiences!

A Real-world Use Case

How might this apply in a real-world scenario, you ask?

An example is a global hospitality customer of ours, who has partnered with Rivet Logic to implement three internal facing web properties that enable the company to perform its day to day business operations. With a reach spanning across 110+ countries, these sites are deployed in the cloud on Amazon AWS throughout the US, Europe and Asia Pacific, consisting of many data sources and used across multiple devices.

This customer needed a way to gain deeper insight into these systems — how the sites are being used along with the types of issues encountered to help improve operational efficiencies. Using Elasticsearch and Kibana, this customer is able to gain much better visibility into each site’s utility. Through detailed metrics, combined with the ability to perform aggregations and more intelligent queries, this customer can now gain much deeper insight into their data set through in depth reports and dashboards. In addition, the Elastic Stack solution aggregates all system logs into one place, making it possible to perform complex analysis to provide insightful data to better address operational concerns.